Tournaments
So you've got the basics down and have decided to try your hand in a tournament. This guide should help you with what to expect and what type of tournament will be the best fit for what you want to do.
How Tournaments Work
Most tournaments will use what is called the Swiss format. At the beginning of the tournament, the amount of rounds will be announced. You will not be eliminated from the tournament after one loss or two losses. You can play all the way through all the Swiss rounds. That means if the tournament is 6 rounds, you can play all 6 rounds whether you go 6-0 or 0-6.
In the first round of a Swiss format tournament, players will be paired against each other randomly. You will get 3 points for winning your match and 1 point for losing your match. In each subsequent round, players will only be paired with other players that have the same amount of points. For example, if after round 3, you have 2 wins and 1 loss you will have 7 points. In round 4, you will get paired against another player with 7 points.
In some tournaments, you will only play one game. In others, it will be best two out of three. In tournaments that are best of three, whether you win 2-0 or 2-1 has no bearing on the tournament standings. In one game matches, there will be a 30 minute time limit with each player having a 15 minute clock. In best of three tournaments, there will be a 60 minute round limit and each player will have a 30 minute clock.
At the end of the tournament, many players will have the same record. To determine the order of finish, there is a tiebreaker system. The tiebreaker is called Strength of Field. To determine your SoF, the total points of all your opponents are added up (anyone who has dropped will get one point per round after they drop). The lowest opponent's total is then subtracted. This number represents the strength of players you played against in this tournament. The higher the number, the better your tiebreaker.
Now that you know how tournaments work, which ones should you play in? There are several types of tournaments that take place in Legends of Norrath. Let's rank them from fun factor up to fierce competitiveness.
Release Events
Release Events happen the weekend a new set comes out. They are sealed deck events. In a sealed deck event, each player receives a random starter deck and 2 booster packs to add to the starter deck. This is the deck you will use for the entire tournament. These events cost 20 Event Passes to enter and will run all through the first weekend of a set's release. Event Passes are what you use to enter tournaments. You can trade for them in the game or buy them from the Sony store for $1. These events are usually focused on the fun of getting to play with a brand new set. The prizes are nice, but aren't over the top so that everyone is overly concerned with winning. Another bonus of these events is that everyone gets at least 3 packs for prizes in addition to getting to keep the cards in their deck.
Loot Weekends
Once a month, SoE releases a new loot card for both EQ and EQ2 that are first available only to people who play in these tournaments. The cost is 10 EP's and again these are generally tournaments more for fun than for the great prizes. Everyone gets at least 2 packs in these plus the loot card so they are almost always worth the money just from that perspective and some people enter them strictly to get the loot cards. The prizes aren't that much different for the top than the bottom, so again the emphasis in these is having a good time.
Winner's Choice Loot
These tournaments are one step up on the competition ladder. They cost 5 EP's to get into, and the winner gets a loot card of his or her choice. Since some of the loot cards can be quite valuable, these tournaments tend to draw a slightly tougher crowd. There is also a great disparity in the pack distribution among the top finishers so winning becomes more important. Choose your own loot tournaments require a little bit more preparation than some of the others.
Legends of Norrath Championship Qualifiers
These events are absolutely free, so if you play in one you will be out absolutely nothing but your time. These tournaments are currently the top of the heap when it comes to competitive LoN. These only happen once a month and draw the toughest crowds of any Legends of Norrath tournament. They are split up into 2 days. Day 1 is usually 8 best of three rounds. The top 16 from Day 1 come back on Day 2 to compete for the big prizes. The Top 16 all get at least $50. The winner gets a bye into the Championship at GenCon in August along with hotel and airfare to the convention. You will find the best of the best LoN players in these tournaments. Despite the competitive nature of these events, they are incredibly fun and everyone is very friendly.
Legends of Norrath Championship
The Legends of Norrath Championship will be held at GenCon in Indianapolis in August. Details are still scarce, but there will be 32 players in the finals splitting a $100,000 prize pool. You can qualify through the monthly Qualifier tournaments. There will also be qualifiers held at GenCon in August. This section will be updated as details become available.
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